Thrilla` in Lake Villa The first Thrilla` was in...

June 17, 1990|By Written by Tim Franklin with reports from the Tribune`s metropolitan bureaus.

Thrilla` in Lake Villa

The first Thrilla` was in Manila, site of the legendary 1975 Ali-Frazier heavyweight bout. But now the world has another Thrilla`, a rap-style song about that oasis of excitement, little Lake Villa.

Bob Young, 44, a resident of Lake Villa Township and a professional singer, got the idea for his ``Every Day`s a Thrilla` When You`re Living in Lake Villa`` after a Chicago radio station solicited songs about small towns. Most of them, Young said, were just too serious. So Young got his wife, two cleaning ladies and ``two ladies in bikinis`` at a nearby beach to do backup vocals. And, he said, ``I just threw together this (rhythm) track and started howling.``

Here`s a sample of what came out: ``Most people don`t realize that Chicago ain`t nothing but a suburb of Lake Villa. . . . They used to call us a one-horse town-hey, baby, we`ve got three horses. . . . When we take a vacation, we go to Manhattan so we can slow down.``

Lake Villa now is selling tapes of the song, with the proceeds going to the Fire Department and the paramedic squad, an admiring Mayor Joyce Frayer said.

But even a modest Like Villa resident could blush at what Young said has become the hit line in the song: ``We`re so close to Wisconsin, you can smell the cheese when they cut it.``

Cooling off

It makes the Chicago City Council look like a society of needlepointers.

It happened a couple of weeks ago just after a committee meeting of the normally mundane Lake County Forest Preserve District. Board member Andrea Moore was so angry at member John Balen that she did something most taxpayers can only dream about. Moore left the meeting room, found a pitcher, filled it with water, returned to the room and . . . splish, splash, Balen was taking a bath. ``It was an angry situation and this was a humorous way to deal with an angry situation,`` Moore said last week. ``A pitcher of water seemed rather harmless.``

Commenting on the incident last week, board member James LaBelle said,

``I think Andrea knows she shouldn`t have done it . . . (but) John has a history of being rude and intolerable to other board members.``

End of an era, Part I

St. Mary`s Episcopal Church in Crystal Lake has been forced to cancel its annual June craft sale, which has been a big fundraising event since 1978. The reason: Rev. William Hoelzel said his church can`t compete any more with craft exhibits at shopping malls. The good news for the church is that a dinner and musical it put together last month was successful. ``We are not angry or bitter,`` Hoelzel said. ``We shifted our focus and that is great.``

End of an era, Part II

In Du Page County, jacked-up pickups will replace tractors at this year`s county fair in July in Wheaton. The county`s fair association is yanking the tractor-pull event because of dwindling interest. In its place, the fair will feature a ``truck pull`` and a race in the mud for the huge trucks.

But the more . . .

things change, someone will come along determined to revive a little bit of history, like the River Forest Police Department. Officers in the near west suburb will soon be wearing brass buttons on their uniforms, just like the good ol` days.

And this fall in Naperville, uniforms of an earlier era will be required as well, but not for law and order. Ward Brown, an attorney, and fiancee Terry Blatnick, a secretary-teacher, will be married in a 19th Century church in Naper Settlement, a collection of historic buildings near downtown. The couple have persuaded their wedding party, minister and friends to deck out in pre-Civil War-era costumes.

The blurbs

The Old Orland Heritage Foundation soon will accept sealed bids on a 100-year- old family farmhouse at 179th Street and 108th Avenue in Orland Park, said Joyce Lahti of the foundation. The foundation is trying to save the farmhouse from the wrecking ball and the onrush of suburb-itis. . . . Thomas J. Madden, principal of Downers Grove South High School, will be the new superintendent of the one-school, 600-student Lemont Township High School District 210. Current Lemont Supt. John Murphy will become the head of the Geneva school district.